Outer surfaces of sun visors

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method for producing blow-moulded sun visors comprising outer surfaces with a preferred embodiment. The outer surface of the sun visor varies in colour, surface structure and roughness. An economically-produced sun visor can thus be obtained to match the interior fittings of any motor vehicle. The structure and roughness of the outer surface of the sun visor are complementary to the inner surfaces ( 4 ) of the blow mould ( 1, 1 ′). The colour of the outer surfaces of the sun visor is also adjusted according to the coloration of the polypropylene used ( 2 ). Said coloration is obtained from organic and inorganic pigments. The invention also relates to a zip-up material cover for sun visors, which can easily be taken off and changed as required. The zip is almost completely covered by the hem and therefore cannot be seen by the passengers in the vehicle.

1. TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to sun visors of motor vehicles for shielding thehead regions of the passengers against incident light. Such sun visorshave different shapes, surface structures and functionalities.

2. PRIOR ART

Essentially, sun visors are manufactured since motor vehicles have beenproduced. They are a main part of the interior fittings of a motorvehicle and can vary in design, shape, used materials and structuredepending on the quality of the interior fittings. Additionally, the sunvisors can be equipped with additional technical devices for examplemirrors or interior lights.

In the prior art different methods for the manufacture of sun visors areknown. First technical constructions of sun visors consist of forinstance a wire frame shaped like a sun visor which is filled by astabilizing element, as for example paper board. Then, layers of foammaterial are glued on the large-surface sides of the stabilizingelements which cover the wire frame. The sandwich structure built inthat way is subsequently covered by for example a plastic material or acloth cover to provide a sun visor with attractive optical design.

Besides the conformation and the stabilizing of the sun visor the wireframe serves for containing links to attach the sun visor to appropriateplaces in the vehicle. According to a further embodiment of the priorart, plastic materials are foamed around the wire frame inside a formthereby forming a sun visor body. It is for example covered by plasticmaterials or cloth as described above.

According to a further, as such known method of manufacturing, sunvisors are produced by blow molding, wherein a soft flexible tube madeof plastic material is expanded by compressed air inside a blow mold. Inthis context the blow mold determines the later shape of the sun visorbody. Such plastic sun visor bodies are manufacturable with low processefforts however, they are not attractive in surface structure andappearance. If required, the sun visor bodies are covered by for exampleplastic covers or cloth and in that way adapted to the interior fittingsof the motor vehicle. In this process it is necessary that the mainprocedure steps are manually performed as for example covering the sunvisor body by a cloth cover.

The production of optically attractive sun visors is technicallycomplecated as well as time and cost consuming because of the hugenumber of procedure steps for manufacturing the sun visor body which arepartially manually performed. An adaptation in colour of the sun visorto the interior design of the motor vehicle is only possible by choosingthe appropriate cloth or plastic cover.

It is therefore the problem to integrate the colour and surfacedesigning of sun visors into the manufacturing process. This applies inparticular to blow molding. Sun visors with the same appearance can beproduced more cost effective and in shorter time when substantiallymanually made design steps as for example covering processes arereplaced by equivalent manufacturing steps in the blow molding process.

According to the prior art, ultrasonic sealing is used for covering sunvisor bodies with plastic material. The covering plastic material canvary in colour and surface structure and so appropriately determine theappearance of the sun visor. With the especially expensive covering withcloth, the appearance of the sun visor body and its haptics are adaptedto particularly luxurious standards. Thereto a stocking-like cloth coveris mounted on the sun visor body. For fastening the cloth cover the sunvisor body comprises a special clamping arrangement so that the stillopen end of the stocking-like cloth cover is closed thereby and the sunvisor body is completely encompassed by the cloth cover.

The clamping mechanism for closing the cloth cover produced in the blowmolding procedure is very expensive in its manufacturing and cannot beopened and closed several times for example to change the cloth cover.On the other hand, the cloth cover is closed in such a way incooperation with the clamping mechanism that only one seam is visible.

There are two further problems. The complicated production of a clampingmechanism has to be integrated in the manufacturing process of the sunvisor body. Additionally, the cloth cover is not changeable so thatespecially in the case of soiling or wear only a completely new sunvisor can be installed in order to repair the damages.

3. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The solution to the problems of the prior art results from the presentinvention according to claim 1 and 4.

The present invention according to claim 1 comprises a method formanufacturing a blow molded sun visor from plastic material inparticular polypropylene with different outer surfaces of the sun visorswherein the polypropylene of the blow molded sun visor isnontransparently colored and the surface structure and roughness of theouter surfaces of the sun visors is complementary shaped to the surfacestructure of the inner surfaces of the blow mold halves during blowmolding.

By using colored plastics and structured inner surfaces of the blow moldhalves in the blow molding process according to the present inventionthe procedure steps required for manufacturing are reduced because thecovering by the above mentioned plastic layers or cloths are no longernecessary. Thus, sun visor bodies are produced with low expenses in themanufacturing process and cost-efficiently.

The second preferred embodiment of the present invention according tothe claims 4 to 6 relates to a cloth cover with a zipper for sun visorbodies. The cloth cover with zipper is simply mountable on the sun visorbody and changeable wherein the zipper is sewn in that way in the clothcover that it is partly or completely covered by the ends of the clothcover to which it is attached.

Therefore, the manufacturing of a clamping mechanism for the cloth coverin the sun visor body is no longer necessary and the cloth cover ischangeable by anyone as desired.

Corresponding to a further embodiment, the zipper is according to claim7 and 8 invisibly arranged at the narrow front side of the sun visorbody, preferably at the side opposite to the passengers and in thedirect vicinity of the bearing axis of the sun visor in order to therebyimprove the appearance of the sun visor.

4. SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The preferred embodiments of the invention result from the subclaims andare illustrated with support of the following specification and thedrawing. It shows:

FIG. 1 (A) a schematic presentation of procedure step 1 of a method formanufacturing blow molded sun visor bodies from polypropylene accordingto a first preferred embodiment: Feeding the blow mold halves with aplastic flexible tube;

FIG. 1 (B) a schematic presentation of procedure step 2 of a method formanufacturing blow molded sun visor bodies from polypropylene accordingto a first preferred embodiment: Inflated flexible tube frompolypropylene in the closed blow mold;

FIG. 2 (A) cut-out presentation of a sun visor with cloth coveraccording to the second preferred embodiment wherein the zipper closingthe cloth cover is attached to the opposed ends of the cloth cover;

FIG. 2 (B) cut-out presentation of a sun visor with cloth coveraccording to a third preferred embodiment wherein the zipper closing thecloth cover is attached to 180°-folded, opposed ends of the cloth cover;and

FIG. 2 (C) presentation of a sun visor with cloth cover according to asecond or third preferred embodiment wherein the zipper closing thecloth cover is arranged at one of the narrow front sides of the sunvisor.

5. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The manufacturing of the sun visor body is according to the presentinvention preferably carried out by a per se known blow molding process.This process is schematically illustrated in FIG. 1(A) and (B). Aflexible tube from plastic material preferred a flexible tube frompolypropylene 2, heated up to a temperature of approximately 180° C. isfed between the blow mold halves 1, 1. The heating of the flexible tube2 from polypropylene serves for an the improved deformability in theblow mold.

Then, the blow mold halves 1, 1′ are moved against each other indirection of arrow until the edges 5 of the blow mold halves 1, 1′support each other and sealingly close the blow mold (FIG. 1 (B)).Thereafter, the flexible tube 2 from polypropylene situated in the blowmold is expanded by means of a preferred compressed-air piping 3according to the present invention and thereby formed in the shapedefined by the blow mold. By the expanding process the plastic materialis pressed against the inner surfaces 4 of the blow mold halves 1, 1′and takes on the complementary shape to the inner surfaces 4 and theirsurface configuration as structure and roughness.

According to the present invention, blow mold halves 1, 1′ withdifferent inner surface structures are used in order to manufacture blowmolded sun visor bodies 10 with different surface configurations. Nappatterns, grooves, structured squares and other shapes are possibleconfigurations of the inner surface 4 of the blow mold halves 1, 1′which produce different optical and haptical effects with the user,respectively.

Besides the surface structure of the blow molded sun visor body 10 itscolour can be varied according to the present invention. A colourvariation is caused by the coloring of the polypropylene which ispreferably used according to the present invention before it is extrudedto a flexible tube 2 from polypropylene. Polypropylene is colored forexample by using organic or inorganic pigments. In that way, thetransparent or non-transparent colour configuration of the blow moldedsun visor body 10 is adapted to the interior fittings of the motorvehicle so that no expensive procedure steps as for example the cut tosize and ultrasonic sealing of a plastic cover as described above arenecessary.

Therefore, a cost-efficient blow molded sun visor adapted in colour andsurface configuration to the interior fittings of a motor vehicle can beproduced by using the present method according to the first embodimentof the present invention.

The second preferred embodiment of the present invention relates to asun visor which comprises a cloth cover 12 with a zipper 111 forcovering the sun visor body 25. The zipper 11 closing the cloth cover 12of the sun visor body 15 extends preferably along one of the narrowfront sides of the sun visor body 25 (FIG. 2 (C)) and anymore preferablyalong that narrow front side of the sun visor which extends in thedirect vicinity of the bearing axis 27 of the sun visor. In thisembodiment the cloth covered sun visor body 25 can be installed in theinterior of the motor vehicle in that way that the front side 22 of thesun visor 20 with zipper 11 is situated at the side opposite to thepassengers and it is therefore not visible. Two preferred embodimentsare shown in FIG. 2 (A) and (B).

As shown in FIG. 2 (A) and (B), the zipper 11 is sewn on the cloth coverin different ways. Referring to FIG. 2 (A), the zipper 11 is attachedfor example to both opposed ends of the cloth cover 12, respectively bya seam 13. The seam 13 is visible from outside in that way of attaching.Nevertheless, this way of sewing on can be easily performed and does notrequire complicated technical means whereby the cloth cover according tothe present invention and corresponding to the second embodiment can beproduced with low costs.

FIG. 2 (B) shows a further way of attaching the zipper 11 to the clothcover 12. Here, the zipper 11 is according to a third embodiment of thepresent invention attached to 180′-folded ends of the opposed ends ofthe cloth cover 12 by concealed seams 13. This embodiment provides aconcealed or from outside invisible seam 13. Additionally, the zipper 11is partly or completely covered by the resuiting hem 14 which improvesthe appearance of the sun visor 20 when the seam is to be situated in avisible region for the passengers for example at the front side 23 ofthe sun visor 20 turned toward the passengers of the motor vehicle, seeFIG. 2 (C).

Furthermore according to a preferred embodiment, the zipper 11 ispositioned at the front side 22 in the direct vicinity of the bearingaxis 27 of the sun visor.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

-   1, 1′ blow mold halves-   2 flexible tube from plastic material-   3 compressed-air piping-   4 inner surface of the blow mold halves 1, 1′-   5 edge of the blow mold halve-   6 sun visor body-   11 zipper-   12 end of the cloth cover-   13 seam-   14 hem-   20 sun visor with cloth cover-   22, 23 front sides of the sun visor-   25 sun visor body-   26 bearing axis

1. Method for manufacturing a blow molded sun visor (10) from plastic material, in particular polypropylene (2), with different outer surfaces of the sun visor, characterized in that: a) the polypropylene (2) of the blow molded sun visor (10) is nontransparently ad colored; and b) the surface structure and roughness of the outer surface of the sun visor (10) is complementary shaped to the surface structure of the inner surfaces (4) of the blow mold halves (1, 1′) during blow molding.
 2. Method according to claim 1 wherein the polypropylene (2) is colored by pigments.
 3. Method according to claim 1 wherein blow mold halves (1, 1′) with different surface structure and roughness of the inner surfaces are used.
 4. Sun visor body (25) with cloth cover (12) characterized in that said cloth cover (12) comprises a zipper (11).
 5. Sun visor body (25) according to claim 4 characterized in that said zipper (11) is attached to opposed ends of said cloth cover (12) or at 180°-folded, opposed ends of said cloth cover (12).
 6. Sun visor body (25) according to claim 5 characterized in that said zipper (11) is partly or completely covered by the ends of the cloth cover (12).
 7. Sun visor body (25) according to one of the claims 4 to 6 characterized in that the zipper (11) is positioned at one of the front sides (22, 23) of the sun visor body (25).
 8. Sun visor body (25) according to claim 7 characterized in that the zipper (11) is positioned at the front side (22) in the direct vicinity of bearing axis (27) of the sun visor (20). 